Alternatives to Swagger UI logo

Alternatives to Swagger UI

Postman, jsdoc, Apiary, Docusaurus, and Gitbook are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Swagger UI.
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What is Swagger UI and what are its top alternatives?

Swagger UI is a dependency-free collection of HTML, Javascript, and CSS assets that dynamically generate beautiful documentation and sandbox from a Swagger-compliant API
Swagger UI is a tool in the Documentation as a Service & Tools category of a tech stack.
Swagger UI is an open source tool with 25.4K GitHub stars and 8.8K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Swagger UI's open source repository on GitHub

Top Alternatives to Swagger UI

  • Postman
    Postman

    It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide. ...

  • jsdoc
    jsdoc

    JSDoc 3 is an API documentation generator for JavaScript, similar to JavaDoc or PHPDoc. You add documentation comments directly to your source code, right along side the code itself. The JSDoc Tool will scan your source code, and generate a complete HTML documentation website for you. ...

  • Apiary
    Apiary

    It takes more than a simple HTML page to thrill your API users. The right tools take weeks of development. Weeks that apiary.io saves. ...

  • Docusaurus
    Docusaurus

    Docusaurus is a project for easily building, deploying, and maintaining open source project websites. ...

  • Gitbook
    Gitbook

    It is a modern documentation platform where teams can document everything from products, to APIs and internal knowledge-bases. It is a place to think and track ideas for you & your team. ...

  • ReadMe.io
    ReadMe.io

    It is an easy-to-use tool to help you build out documentation! Each documentation site that you publish is a project where there is space for documentation, interactive API reference guides, a changelog, and much more. ...

  • Read the Docs
    Read the Docs

    It hosts documentation, making it fully searchable and easy to find. You can import your docs using any major version control system, including Mercurial, Git, Subversion, and Bazaar. ...

  • Slate
    Slate

    Slate helps you create beautiful API documentation. Think of it as an intelligent, responsive documentation template for your API. ...

Swagger UI alternatives & related posts

Postman logo

Postman

91.9K
78.7K
1.8K
Only complete API development environment
91.9K
78.7K
+ 1
1.8K
PROS OF POSTMAN
  • 490
    Easy to use
  • 369
    Great tool
  • 276
    Makes developing rest api's easy peasy
  • 156
    Easy setup, looks good
  • 144
    The best api workflow out there
  • 53
    It's the best
  • 53
    History feature
  • 44
    Adds real value to my workflow
  • 43
    Great interface that magically predicts your needs
  • 35
    The best in class app
  • 12
    Can save and share script
  • 10
    Fully featured without looking cluttered
  • 8
    Collections
  • 8
    Option to run scrips
  • 8
    Global/Environment Variables
  • 7
    Shareable Collections
  • 7
    Dead simple and useful. Excellent
  • 7
    Dark theme easy on the eyes
  • 6
    Awesome customer support
  • 6
    Great integration with newman
  • 5
    Documentation
  • 5
    Simple
  • 5
    The test script is useful
  • 4
    Saves responses
  • 4
    This has simplified my testing significantly
  • 4
    Makes testing API's as easy as 1,2,3
  • 4
    Easy as pie
  • 3
    API-network
  • 3
    I'd recommend it to everyone who works with apis
  • 3
    Mocking API calls with predefined response
  • 2
    Now supports GraphQL
  • 2
    Postman Runner CI Integration
  • 2
    Easy to setup, test and provides test storage
  • 2
    Continuous integration using newman
  • 2
    Pre-request Script and Test attributes are invaluable
  • 2
    Runner
  • 2
    Graph
  • 1
    <a href="http://fixbit.com/">useful tool</a>
CONS OF POSTMAN
  • 10
    Stores credentials in HTTP
  • 9
    Bloated features and UI
  • 8
    Cumbersome to switch authentication tokens
  • 7
    Poor GraphQL support
  • 5
    Expensive
  • 3
    Not free after 5 users
  • 3
    Can't prompt for per-request variables
  • 1
    Import swagger
  • 1
    Support websocket
  • 1
    Import curl

related Postman posts

Noah Zoschke
Engineering Manager at Segment · | 30 upvotes · 2.7M views

We just launched the Segment Config API (try it out for yourself here) — a set of public REST APIs that enable you to manage your Segment configuration. A public API is only as good as its #documentation. For the API reference doc we are using Postman.

Postman is an “API development environment”. You download the desktop app, and build API requests by URL and payload. Over time you can build up a set of requests and organize them into a “Postman Collection”. You can generalize a collection with “collection variables”. This allows you to parameterize things like username, password and workspace_name so a user can fill their own values in before making an API call. This makes it possible to use Postman for one-off API tasks instead of writing code.

Then you can add Markdown content to the entire collection, a folder of related methods, and/or every API method to explain how the APIs work. You can publish a collection and easily share it with a URL.

This turns Postman from a personal #API utility to full-blown public interactive API documentation. The result is a great looking web page with all the API calls, docs and sample requests and responses in one place. Check out the results here.

Postman’s powers don’t end here. You can automate Postman with “test scripts” and have it periodically run a collection scripts as “monitors”. We now have #QA around all the APIs in public docs to make sure they are always correct

Along the way we tried other techniques for documenting APIs like ReadMe.io or Swagger UI. These required a lot of effort to customize.

Writing and maintaining a Postman collection takes some work, but the resulting documentation site, interactivity and API testing tools are well worth it.

See more
Simon Reymann
Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH · | 27 upvotes · 4.7M views

Our whole Node.js backend stack consists of the following tools:

  • Lerna as a tool for multi package and multi repository management
  • npm as package manager
  • NestJS as Node.js framework
  • TypeScript as programming language
  • ExpressJS as web server
  • Swagger UI for visualizing and interacting with the API’s resources
  • Postman as a tool for API development
  • TypeORM as object relational mapping layer
  • JSON Web Token for access token management

The main reason we have chosen Node.js over PHP is related to the following artifacts:

  • Made for the web and widely in use: Node.js is a software platform for developing server-side network services. Well-known projects that rely on Node.js include the blogging software Ghost, the project management tool Trello and the operating system WebOS. Node.js requires the JavaScript runtime environment V8, which was specially developed by Google for the popular Chrome browser. This guarantees a very resource-saving architecture, which qualifies Node.js especially for the operation of a web server. Ryan Dahl, the developer of Node.js, released the first stable version on May 27, 2009. He developed Node.js out of dissatisfaction with the possibilities that JavaScript offered at the time. The basic functionality of Node.js has been mapped with JavaScript since the first version, which can be expanded with a large number of different modules. The current package managers (npm or Yarn) for Node.js know more than 1,000,000 of these modules.
  • Fast server-side solutions: Node.js adopts the JavaScript "event-loop" to create non-blocking I/O applications that conveniently serve simultaneous events. With the standard available asynchronous processing within JavaScript/TypeScript, highly scalable, server-side solutions can be realized. The efficient use of the CPU and the RAM is maximized and more simultaneous requests can be processed than with conventional multi-thread servers.
  • A language along the entire stack: Widely used frameworks such as React or AngularJS or Vue.js, which we prefer, are written in JavaScript/TypeScript. If Node.js is now used on the server side, you can use all the advantages of a uniform script language throughout the entire application development. The same language in the back- and frontend simplifies the maintenance of the application and also the coordination within the development team.
  • Flexibility: Node.js sets very few strict dependencies, rules and guidelines and thus grants a high degree of flexibility in application development. There are no strict conventions so that the appropriate architecture, design structures, modules and features can be freely selected for the development.
See more
jsdoc logo

jsdoc

569
154
5
An API documentation generator for JavaScript
569
154
+ 1
5
PROS OF JSDOC
  • 2
    Far less verbose
  • 1
    Simpler type safe than TypeScript
  • 1
    No compiler needed
  • 1
    Does almost everything TS does
CONS OF JSDOC
    Be the first to leave a con

    related jsdoc posts

    Salina Acharya
    Senior Software Engineer at Datamine Software · | 6 upvotes · 145.1K views
    Shared insights
    on
    jsdocjsdocDocusaurusDocusaurusReactReact

    Hello, I need to write documentation for my React codebase. I am tossing between Docusaurus and jsdoc. I liked everything about Docusaurus but then it doesn't seem to generate a web file like jsdoc does once the code is commented with the required tags. I was hoping I could get some advice on which tool to go with for my React application.

    See more
    Apiary logo

    Apiary

    232
    325
    109
    Integrated API documentation, prototyping and testing
    232
    325
    + 1
    109
    PROS OF APIARY
    • 29
      Easy to use
    • 19
      Free to use
    • 12
      Traffic inspector
    • 11
      Free
    • 10
      Collaboration
    • 7
      Mock API
    • 4
      Dashboard
    • 3
      Customization
    • 2
      30 Days Trial
    • 2
      Access Control
    • 2
      Documentation
    • 2
      Validate API Documentation
    • 1
      API explorer
    • 1
      Clean syntax
    • 1
      Provisioning
    • 1
      Shared API blueprint templates
    • 1
      Github integration helps with collaboration
    • 1
      Code auto-generation
    CONS OF APIARY
      Be the first to leave a con

      related Apiary posts

      Docusaurus logo

      Docusaurus

      223
      407
      34
      Easy to maintain open source documentation websites
      223
      407
      + 1
      34
      PROS OF DOCUSAURUS
      • 7
        Open Source
      • 7
        Self Hosted
      • 3
        MDX
      • 3
        I18n
      • 3
        Free to use
      • 3
        React
      • 3
        Easy customization
      • 3
        Jamstack
      • 2
        Versioning
      CONS OF DOCUSAURUS
        Be the first to leave a con

        related Docusaurus posts

        Salina Acharya
        Senior Software Engineer at Datamine Software · | 6 upvotes · 145.1K views
        Shared insights
        on
        jsdocjsdocDocusaurusDocusaurusReactReact

        Hello, I need to write documentation for my React codebase. I am tossing between Docusaurus and jsdoc. I liked everything about Docusaurus but then it doesn't seem to generate a web file like jsdoc does once the code is commented with the required tags. I was hoping I could get some advice on which tool to go with for my React application.

        See more
        Gitbook logo

        Gitbook

        212
        344
        10
        Document Everything! For you, your users and your team
        212
        344
        + 1
        10
        PROS OF GITBOOK
        • 6
          Prueba
        • 4
          Integrated high-quality editor
        CONS OF GITBOOK
        • 1
          No longer Git or Open
        • 1
          Just sync with GitHub

        related Gitbook posts

        ReadMe.io logo

        ReadMe.io

        118
        363
        69
        Create and manage beautiful, interactive documentation the easy way
        118
        363
        + 1
        69
        PROS OF README.IO
        • 18
          Great UI
        • 15
          Easy
        • 10
          Customizable
        • 10
          Cute mascot
        • 8
          Looks great and is fun to use
        • 5
          It's friggin awesome
        • 3
          Make sample API calls inside the docs
        CONS OF README.IO
        • 4
          Support is awful
        • 3
          No backup and restore capability
        • 2
          Important parts of the CSS are locked
        • 2
          Document structure is severely restricted
        • 2
          Full of bugs
        • 2
          No notifications of edits by other users
        • 1
          Supports only two documents plus a blog
        • 1
          Does not support pre-request scripts
        • 1
          Random pages display content of other pages instead
        • 1
          Review and comment functionality is hard to work with
        • 1
          Navigation in user-facing copy is spotty
        • 1
          All admins have full editing rights

        related ReadMe.io posts

        Noah Zoschke
        Engineering Manager at Segment · | 30 upvotes · 2.7M views

        We just launched the Segment Config API (try it out for yourself here) — a set of public REST APIs that enable you to manage your Segment configuration. A public API is only as good as its #documentation. For the API reference doc we are using Postman.

        Postman is an “API development environment”. You download the desktop app, and build API requests by URL and payload. Over time you can build up a set of requests and organize them into a “Postman Collection”. You can generalize a collection with “collection variables”. This allows you to parameterize things like username, password and workspace_name so a user can fill their own values in before making an API call. This makes it possible to use Postman for one-off API tasks instead of writing code.

        Then you can add Markdown content to the entire collection, a folder of related methods, and/or every API method to explain how the APIs work. You can publish a collection and easily share it with a URL.

        This turns Postman from a personal #API utility to full-blown public interactive API documentation. The result is a great looking web page with all the API calls, docs and sample requests and responses in one place. Check out the results here.

        Postman’s powers don’t end here. You can automate Postman with “test scripts” and have it periodically run a collection scripts as “monitors”. We now have #QA around all the APIs in public docs to make sure they are always correct

        Along the way we tried other techniques for documenting APIs like ReadMe.io or Swagger UI. These required a lot of effort to customize.

        Writing and maintaining a Postman collection takes some work, but the resulting documentation site, interactivity and API testing tools are well worth it.

        See more
        Todd Gardner

        We recently needed to rebuild our documentation site, currently built using Jekyll hosted on GitHub Pages. We wanted to update the content and refresh the style to make it easier to find answers.

        We considered hosted services that could accept our markdown content, like ReadMe.io and Read the Docs, however both seemed expensive for essentially hosting the same platform we already had for free.

        I also looked at the Gatsby Static Site generator to modernize Jekyll. I don't think this is a fit, as our documentation is relatively simple and relies heavily on Markdown. Jekyll excels at Markdown, while Gatsby seemed to struggle with it.

        We chose to stick with the current platform and just refresh our template and style with some add-on JavaScript.

        See more
        Read the Docs logo

        Read the Docs

        69
        288
        22
        Create, host, and browse documentation
        69
        288
        + 1
        22
        PROS OF READ THE DOCS
        • 13
          GitHub integration
        • 7
          Free for public repos
        • 2
          Automated Builds
        CONS OF READ THE DOCS
          Be the first to leave a con

          related Read the Docs posts

          Todd Gardner

          We recently needed to rebuild our documentation site, currently built using Jekyll hosted on GitHub Pages. We wanted to update the content and refresh the style to make it easier to find answers.

          We considered hosted services that could accept our markdown content, like ReadMe.io and Read the Docs, however both seemed expensive for essentially hosting the same platform we already had for free.

          I also looked at the Gatsby Static Site generator to modernize Jekyll. I don't think this is a fit, as our documentation is relatively simple and relies heavily on Markdown. Jekyll excels at Markdown, while Gatsby seemed to struggle with it.

          We chose to stick with the current platform and just refresh our template and style with some add-on JavaScript.

          See more
          Slate logo

          Slate

          59
          131
          8
          Beautiful static documentation for your API, inspired by Stripe's and Paypal's API docs
          59
          131
          + 1
          8
          PROS OF SLATE
          • 5
            Easy setup
          • 3
            Simple to Use
          CONS OF SLATE
            Be the first to leave a con

            related Slate posts

            Tim Nolet

            JavaScript Node.js hapi Vue.js Swagger UI Slate

            Two weeks ago we released the public API for Checkly. We already had an API that was serving our frontend Vue.js app. We decided to create an new set of API endpoints and not reuse the already existing one. The blog post linked below details what parts we needed to refactor, what parts we added and how we handled generating API documentation. More specifically, the post dives into:

            • Refactoring the existing Hapi.js based API
            • API key based authentication
            • Refactoring models with Objection.js
            • Validating plan limits
            • Generating Swagger & Slate based documentation
            See more